The dance drama Fen Mo is touring Europe as part of the Happy Chinese New Year program organized by the Ministry of Culture. (Photo provided to China Daily)
Traditional Chinese arts and crafts are being presented through a dance drama by the Beijing Dance Academy that is now touring Europe.
Fen Mo (When Painting Comes Alive), the dance drama, is being staged in nine cities in five countries from Jan 17 at venues ranging from the National Theater of Novi Sad, Serbia, to the Palace of Arts (MUPA) of Budapest in Hungary.
The dance drama premiered at the Tianqiao Theater in Beijing in 2009. It features 31 students from the Beijing dance school, all of whom major in traditional Chinese dance.
The Europe tour ends on Tuesday.
Consisting of five chapters, Fen Mo has borrowed elements from traditional Chinese culture, such as Peking Opera, ink painting, paper art and tai chi, to display the beauty of Chinese paintings in particular.
So far, the dance drama has attracted more than 5,000 audience members during its ongoing tour.
According to Pang Dan, director of the traditional Chinese dance department at the Beijing Dance Academy, the tour is the school's first such large-scale presentation in Europe.
"We are trying to break with conventional storytelling in dance dramas. With Fen Mo, we use symbols that represent traditional Chinese culture to communicate with the audience," says Pang, who is also one of the choreographers of the dance drama.
Fen Mo was revised in 2016 to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the founding of the dance school.
